The American clipper ARCHITECT was built by L.B. Culled, Baltimore for Captain Adams Gray, Baltimore.
Launched as the ARCHITECT
Tonnage 520 tons, dim. 140.0 xc 30.0 x 13.6ft
Ship rigged.
1848 Completed.
She was a shallow draft Baltimore clipper and the largest of the three ships built in Baltimore in 1847/48.
16 January 1849 under command of Captain Gray she sailed from New Orleans where she had loaded cargo and embarking passengers for San Francisco. Like many other vessels in the early months of 1849, only one of her foremast hands received pay - William Downie. He later founded the town of Downieville, California, and became prominent in the development of the northern port of the state.
The voyage to the Golden Coast proved to be eventful and tedious. Cholera broke out, several of the 56 passengers died. Dissension rose, and the ship had to put into Rio de Janeiro. She sailed again on 18 March, making slow time in the South Atlantic, with bad weather off the Horn. She put into a Chilean port for supplies, arriving at San Francisco, 28 June 1849 after a passage of 160 days.
When she sailed from San Francisco or where she went is unknown, but she returned in San Francisco in April 1850, reporting 45 days from Valparaiso.
She was then sold to Captain Hall Jackson Tibbets for US$24,000, he sailed her around Cape Horn to Hong Kong in 42 days. Captain Tibbets found out that during the passage that she was to cranky and hard to handle. http://www.internetantiquegazette.com/a ... l_jackson/
In Hong Kong command was taken over by Capt. Dearborn, who sailed the ARCHITECT in 108 days to New York, he left the China coast in August and arrived New York December 1850.
It is then given that she was sold for US$ 30,000 but as given by his son on the web-site above she was sold in 1854 by Tibbets.
Under Captain Caspar she sailed from New York to San Francisco in 116 days. From San Francisco she sailed to Sydney, Australia in the fast time of 45 days.
23 December 1851 she sailed again from Sydney bound for Hobart Town with some passengers and sugar and coffee as cargo. Then she headed again for San Francisco where she arrived on 14 May 1852 after a passage of 77 days with on board a few passengers and 4000 boxes potatoes, 1500 boxes onions, 70 ton coffee, 25 boxes apples and 80 bags barley.
Command was taken over by Captain Coggins who took her back to Sydney in 54 days.
She sailed then to China and was laid up in Hong Kong in May 1853, she was sold then to the American merchants Nye Parkin & Co. in China at a considerable financial loss.
During the China tea season she carried tea to London in 1853 and 1854 under command of Captain Potter.
1) 25 June 1853 she sailed from Whampoa arriving in London on 10 October 1853 after a passage of 107 days. After discharging she sailed to New York where after she sailed from New York on 1 March 1854 to Hong Kong where she arrived after a passage of 102 days.
2) 09 July 1854 sailed again from Whampoa passed Anjer 13 August and arrived London 30 October 1854.
1856 Nye got in financially troubles, so most probably the ARCHITECT was sold, abandoned or hulked. She does not appears in any Lloyds Registers, and I can’t find more info on her after 1854.
I do not have the stamp, see stamp image and painting on http://www.shipstamps.co.uk/forum/viewt ... allery]/0/
Nicaragua 1998 5cor sg?, scott2258.
Source: Internet. The Tea Clippers by David R MacGregor but mostly taken from https://books.google.co.nz/books?id=9SJ ... ork&f=true